During a public meeting Tuesday night, Jena Burt, vice president of the Poplar Grove Community Council, said the neighborhood around the proposed development on Redwood Road at North Temple already has Latino markets and sections of Latino food within mainstream grocers.
"I cannot envision the city would be willing to donate $2 million to this project when we are facing Balkanization in our area as it is," she said.
And community leader Jay Ingleby - who caused a stir in 2000 when he complained about the "Spanish stuff" taking over his Glendale neighborhood - complained the proposed center would cater to the 30 percent of the population on the west side that is Latino.
"What about the other 70 percent? We need stores where everyone can shop in the community," Ingleby, vice president of the Glendale Community Council, told the Salt Lake City Council.
Later he added: "If they build this with signs in Spanish, to me, it's like segregating a community."
City Councilman Eric Jergensen condemned the comments.
"Our neighbors are human beings. They may be from another country but they are human beings and deserve our respect. If we're going to focus on this project being a Balkanizing project, then we really have got some problems in our community that really need to be addressed," Jergensen said.
Indeed, the west side has struggled as waves of ethnic minorities have transformed the previously predominantly white neighborhoods.
A proposal for a 160,000-square-foot project by California-based Legaspi Co. is caught in the middle.
The city says it would be anchored by the Mexican supermarket Gigante and include about a dozen other retailers. City officials who have visited other Legaspi projects near Los Angeles say they become community centers and have revitalized troubled neighborhoods. That's what the city wants to do on Redwood Road and North Temple, where other development deals have been difficult to muster.
While the shopping center would cater to Latinos - the architecture would be reminiscent of Mexican towns, for example - it's also meant to appeal to everyone.
Councilman Carlton Christensen visited a Gigante market in California and said he would like to shop there because of the abundance of fresh produce.
"It's very broad-based," agreed Alison McFarlane, economic adviser to Mayor Rocky Anderson.
"It's clear they [the skeptics] don't have a clue what this thing will look like," said Councilman Van Turner, who also has visited Legaspi projects in California.
The council discussed a possible loan and subsidy for the project but didn't decide what to do Tuesday night. While the mayor's office initially suggested a $2.25 million loan for the $28.5 million project, that amount has been cut to $2.1 million.
Now there is another possible incentive: $1.5 million from a sales tax rebate, bringing the total incentive package to $3.6 million. That's close to the $4 million in loans and grants the city paid to put KUTV Channel 2 on Main Street.
Legaspi says the city money is needed because land prices have reached exorbitant levels as speculators demand three times above fair-market value. Without the city money, rents aren't marketable and the project "could be dead," Legaspi's lobbyist Dave Spatafore told the council.
hmay@sltrib.com
